Police Log

Posted
Tuesday, December 31, 2013 8:45 am

LARCENIES

Officer Matthew Higgins took a report of a larceny from a car at the Tennis Rhode Island parking lot at 636 Centerville Rd. on Dec. 12. The victim told Higgins he was inside for around two hours after he parked his car around 5:25 p.m. and returned to find the front passenger window smashed and his iPhone missing from the front seat. He said nothing else was missing from the car, even though he had a briefcase with his wallet, credit cards and cash on the back seat. The iPhone was worth $400. No suspects or witnesses.

Officer Michael Walker reported a break into a pickup truck sometime overnight at a Vancouver Avenue home on Dec. 10. The owner reported that she thought she locked the vehicle the night before, but when she returned to it that morning she noticed that her iPod and the USB cord for it were missing. She said the iPod was worth around $450. No witnesses or suspects.

Officer Michelle Caron reported a larceny from a car parked in front of the Citizens Bank at 800 Post Rd. around 1 p.m. on Dec. 9. The victim said she was inside the bank for 10 or 15 minutes. She said she left the Mabank and was about to pay for some items at a CVS store and noticed that the cash was missing from her pocketbook. She said she believed the only time it could have been taken was while she was in the bank. Caron said she went to the bank and asked if they had surveillance of the car from that time and she was told the camera didn’t cover that area of the parking lot. No suspects or witnesses.

DUI AND REFUSAL

Officer Kevin McGuire reported he was on patrol around 10:15 p.m. on Dec. 2 when he was dispatched to Sandy Lane for an accident. He said he was approaching the scene when he saw a man getting into a damaged car and start to drive away as spectators pointed at him and indicating that he was one of the drivers. McGuire said he followed and pulled the car over just a few hundred feet from the scene. He said he asked the driver why he left the scene and he told him, in a slurred voice, that he thought he was all done with exchanging information with the other driver. He said he smelled of alcohol and admitted he had “three beers” at the Meadowbrook Lounge. He said he gave the man a field sobriety test that he failed and then took him to headquarters, where he registered a .225 and a .212 blood alcohol content on the breath test. Steven A. Pusateri, 57, of 145 Crane St., Warwick was charged with DUI and later released to a sober adult.

Officer James Michailides reported he was dispatched to an accident at the Hess station on Post Road near Harrington Avenue around 5:15 p.m. on Nov. 30. He said the driver of a white van was sitting on the curb and appeared to be intoxicated and smelled of alcohol and was being tended to by Warwick Rescue before he was transported to Rhode Island Hospital to be evaluated for injuries. Michailides said he went to the hospital and asked the driver to submit to tests, but he adamantly refused to take any tests. Michailides said he informed the man he was going to be charged with DUI and refusal and for possession of marijuana for the stuff they found that tested positive for cannabis. Witnesses told Officer Robert Hart that the van sped by them on Elmwood Avenue, shedding sparks off a bare rim at a high rate of speed before crashing into another vehicle at the Hess station, the driver of which was also taken to Rhode Island Hospital. Dwayne Albert Balcom, 43, of 90 Birch St., Warwick was charged with DUI and refusal and left in the care and custody of the hospital staff.

Melissa L. Casilli, 37, of 30 Prospect Hill Ave. in West Warwick was charged with DUI and refusal on Dec. 12 after she was arrested at an accident scene at Bald Hill Road and West Natick Avenue around 10 p.m. He said witnesses said the car Casilli was driving went the wrong way on a one-way street. After determining that Casilli was not injured, Officer Nicholas DiNardo said he gave her a field sobriety test and she failed it. Casilli was taken to headquarters where she refused to take a breath test. She was charged with DUI and refusal and later released to a sober adult.

Officer Melissa Schlitzer reported finding a man slumped over a steering wheel on Bald Hill Road around 11:45 p.m. on Dec. 13. She said the car was stopped at a light in the northbound lane near East Avenue and a sergeant took pictures of the man. Schlitzer said they woke the man up and he told them he had a long day and fell asleep at the wheel. When the sergeant opened his hand to see what he was holding, he found two cellophane bags that appeared to have heroin in them. Timothy J. Sullivan, 39, of 101 Providence St. in West Warwick, was arrested and charged with possession of heroin. He was later held on $5,000 surety bail because it was his fourth arrest for possession.

Officer Robert Gauvin reported he was on patrol around 1:40 a.m. on Dec. 8 when he clocked a pickup truck doing 60 miles per hour on Quaker Lane as it swayed around the road. He said he stopped the truck near 966 Quaker Lane and noticed that the driver appeared to be under the influence. He said he smelled of alcohol and slurred his speech. He said he gave the driver a field sobriety test and the man failed it. He said he allowed the man to urinate in a cell before they took the breath test and kept an eye on him the whole time he was in the cell. He said he then turned around and took a couple of staggered steps and dramatically put his hand on the door frame and hit his head on the back of his hand and fell to the ground, as if he injured his face but he refused to allow Gauvin to see his face and insisted he needed a Rescue. He said he asked him once again to deal with the DUI investigation appropriately but he insisted and was taken to Kent Hospital where doctors found nothing wrong with him. Shannon Spears, 42, of 47A Kings Factory Rd. in Charlestown, was charged with speeding, DUI and refusal, second offense, and left him in the care of the hospital.

Sgt. Thomas Snow reported estimating a Ford Fusion was doing 60 and 70 miles per hour as it was traveling through Apponaug around 9:35 p.m. on Dec. 18, missing Snow’s car by inches as it did. He said he stopped the car on Centerville Road. He said it was apparent that the woman driving the car was intoxicated and smelled strongly of alcohol. He said he requested that she step out of the vehicle just as Officer Stephen Major arrived. Snow said he asked Major to administer a field sobriety test and he did. Major reported that the woman failed the field sobriety test and blew a .221 blood alcohol content on both breath tests. Stevie R. Garnett, 27, of 644 Oakland Beach Ave. was charged with DUI and laned roadway violations.

Officer Aaron Kay reported he was on patrol around 1:20 a.m. on Dec. 14 when he saw a car in front of him swerving from side to side down Oakland Beach Avenue and then Warwick Avenue heading north. He said it continued to operate erratically until he pulled it over near Old Warwick Avenue and watched it mount the sidewalk as it pulled over. He said the driver advised him that he did have a couple of drinks but did not think he was driving erratically. He said he had difficulty locating and presenting his driver’s license and his passenger had trouble locating the registration for the car and he, too, looked like he was intoxicated. He said he asked the driver to take a field sobriety test and the man failed it. Kay said he arrested the driver on suspicion of drunk driving and advised his passenger that he would have to find a ride home because the car was being towed and he was too drunk to drive it anyway. Danny W. Maher, 55, of 2 Magnolia Lane in Coventry registered a .172 and a .175 blood alcohol content on the breath test. Kay said the woman who said she would come and get Maher called back and said she was too impaired herself to come and get him. When Maher could not locate anyone sober enough to take him home, he was taken to Kent Hospital and he wasn’t happy with that and became agitated and aggressive and was restrained to a gurney.

ALL DOLLED UP

Officer Darren Parrillo was dispatched to the Launch Indoor Trampoline Park at 105 Pace Blvd. in reference to a credit card larceny that occurred there the day before. The victim told Parrillo the credit card company told her someone used the card at Dwyer’s Doll House on Bald Hill Road the day before and that the woman they suspected of taking it was at the Planet Fitness with three children. Parillo said he did see the video that showed the suspect walking away from the refreshment counter the day before with the card. He said he confronted the suspect with that video and she admitted she took the card but claimed she had thrown it away after she left the trampoline park, “near the McDonald’s on Bald Hill Road.” In the meantime, another officer went to the Dwyer’s Doll House to investigate the use of the card there. That officer learned that a woman who matched the description of the suspect came in the day before and bought two dolls and an outfit for a total of $200.06. They said the woman who bought the dolls had a tattoo on her foot and a scar on her face, just like the suspect. Parrillo said he again confronted the woman with what he learned and she admitted she did use the card to buy the dolls, that the dolls were now at a friend’s house but she did throw the card away after she bought the dolls. Bobbie Marie Rivera, 38, of 137 Chestnut Ave. in Cranston was charged with one count of felony access to a computer for using a bank card as a credit card and one count of larceny for taking the card itself. Rivera was held on $3,000 surety bail.

SHOPLIFTING

Kevin P. Bailey, 48, of 2030 Elmwood Ave. in Warwick was charged with shoplifting at the Wal-Mart on Post Road on Dec. 22. Loss prevention at the store told police he saw the man take some items from the electronics department and conceal them in his pockets before attempting to leave without paying for them. They said they recovered a speaker, a memory stick and a package of antacid tablets worth a total of $79.60. He was held for the next session of District Court because he was already on probation for other offenses.

Taneya S. Leigh, 35, of 23 Somerset St. in Providence was charged with shoplifting at the Wal-Mart in the Rhode Island Mall on Dec. 22. Loss prevention told police she took infants clothes and a picture frame worth a total of $55.70 without paying for the goods. She was held on $2,000 surety bail.

Clementina Fatima Alvarez, 45, of 100 Ohio Ave. in Providence was charged with stealing $210.50 worth of makeup and beauty products from the JC Penney store in the Warwick Mall. She was charged with felony shoplifting because she was already on probation for a prior shoplifting conviction and held on $3,000 surety bail.

Rhonda Fry, 52, of 431 Auburn St. in Cranston was charged with felony shoplifting on Dec. 20 when loss prevention at Sears told police she walked out with $106.99 worth of jewelry she didn’t pay for. She was charged as a habitual offender because she had three prior convictions for shoplifting.